Nadine Dorries MP Reports Twitter-User to Police for “Libel”

Back in August, Nadine Dorries MP made the following statement in the Daily Mail:

One particularly obsessive man recently followed me round with a camera, whipped up online hysteria against me and eventually had to accept a police caution for harassment.

As I’ve blogged previously, the background to this claim was Tim Ireland’s invited presence to film a hustings event in Flitwick in 2010. Dorries complained to the police, and Tim subsequently spoke with the police at length voluntarily to explain the situation. Because Tim spoke to the police formally, the interview took place “under caution”. This meant that Tim’s statements could be regarded as evidence. However, there was no “police caution”, which would mean that police have judged a criminal infraction to have taken place. Dorries has elsewhere been more careful to use the “under caution” phrase, but in the above she is clearly misleading the public about the outcome of a police investigation.

Someone reminded her of this today on Twitter. Here’s the exchange:

@mrhazzers @NadineDorriesMP It’s difficult to take you seriously when you mislead about police investigations. #70%fiction

@nadinedorriesmp @mrhazzers That is libelous and an outright lie. My staff have taken a screen shot and reported your tweet to the police.

Mrhazzer’s “70%fiction” hashtag, of course, refers to Dorries’ infamous admission that her blog was “70 per cent fiction” after details published on her site put some of her expenses into question.

Her complaint against mrhazzers is nonsense: Dorries certainly misled the public about the police and Tim Ireland, and it’s not libellous to say so. And it’s certainly not a police matter either way.

Mrhazzers now joins a list of individuals whom Dorries has reported to the police. Alongside Tim, here are three others:

– Mrs Humphrey Cushion: “Mrs Cushion” is a constituent who has criticised Dorries on Twitter and on her blog. Last year, she was on sick leave from her carer job awaiting operations on her feet for arthritis – Dorries (helped by Paul Staines) tried to smear her as a benefits cheat, and Dorries’ bogus harassment complaint led to a visit from the police. Again, no further action was taken, but the police visit frightened her children, and it took place while she was in pain and lying in bed recuperating from the operations.

– Chris Paul: Paul is a Labour blogger whom Dorries accused of hanging “around outside” her house due to “sexual” interest. In fact, there was no evidence of either.

– Linda Jack: Jack had the temerity to stand against Dorries for the Liberal Democrats in the 2010 General Election, and Dorries accused her of being part of a “group” opposed to her.

15 Responses

  1. And there’s more to come from me, very soon. Bedfordshire Police have made it quite clear to this MP that libel is a civil matter, and I have the paperwork to back this up. Nadine Dorries has no excuse for being merely confused on this front; she is clearly seeking to politicise the local police force (again) by pretending that her critics face potential criminal charges for daring to express their criticisms.

  2. In Linda Jacks’ case Dorries was right. During the the General Election the Lib Dems were opposed to her.

    What’s unclear in that?

  3. I can’t help but wonder when we’re going to see Dorries charged with wasting police time with these baseless “charges”. I strongly suspect anybody else would be. I await that day with unheld breath.

    And then, of course, she could blog or tweet about persecution by the police at the instigation of Twitter users, among whom I’m happy to number myself.

    And why, in the name of all that’s technophobic, does she need staff (plural, you’ll note), to take a screencap? And how many? And are the taxpayers funding this crap?

  4. Nadine makes me laugh out loud LoLz

  5. I cant help but feel rather sorry for her. I think she may be rather lonely and frustrated. Didn’t her boss and party leader say as much in Parliament?.

  6. Yes – Edwin, she is hysterically funny. Like some insane satirical comic creation of TW3 or similar…. until one stops to consider how this hysterical attention-seeking woman, with her grotesquely pink website, is actually a member of parliament, and somehow or other is endorsed by the PM.

    Her inability to differentiate between those legitimately keeping a record of her actions and genuine “stalkers”, and now her inability to differentiate between sarcasm and libel, makes me think that is either unable to comprehend the world, or she has a serious mental impairment, that means she cannot tell truth from fiction, or she is just downright dishonest.

    She disgraces British politics and drags it down to sub-Mary Whitehouse levels.

  7. @AdrianMorgan That Sir !!!, Is slander, libelious, and my Tom Lawyers have been informed.

    • Ooh er…. sorry!

      When she states in her Twitter comment that her “staff” have taken a screen shot and reported it to the police, I am a bit surprised. Can flying monkeys do this?

      Still, after enough time, and enough typewriters, I am sure her flying monkeys could come up with the complete works of Shakespeare, or maybe one of Nadine’s campaign speeches……

  8. […] telling an untruth, she responded with the threat that “My staff have taken a screen shot and reported your tweet to the police […]

  9. […] This is, of course, Dorries’ default position when it comes to unwelcome attention: in the past, she has complained to the police about on-line critics of her behaviour as a public figure, including her former election rival Linda Jack, and on one occasion she even claimed to have reported someone for libel (really). […]

  10. […] and eaten up by STALKERS wild beasts, and other unpleasant things, all because they WOULD not stop finding stuff out about Alice remember the simple rules their friends had taught them: such as, that a red-hot poker will burn […]

  11. UPDATE – Two years on no one will be surprised to hear that Nadine’s claim that I’d been reported to police as a result of the tweet mentioned in this story has resulted in me receiving no summons, visitation or message from Her Majesty’s finest. They obviously have better things to do with their time. I suspect that Dorries has contacted some of my clients recently. I’m sure she is well-connected. But 70% fiction is her claim and 70% fiction should be her name. The sooner she ceases to hold public office the better.

    • > ” I suspect that Dorries has contacted some of my clients recently.”

      That figures. Attempting to Interfere with how someone makes a living is one of the easiest ways for someone unburdened by a sense of decency to intimidate and suppress free speech.

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